Comparison of the Likelihood Ratios of Two Diagnostic Tests Subject to a Paired Design

Positive and negative likelihood ratios are parameters which are used to assess and compare the effectiveness of binary diagnostic tests. Both parameters only depend on the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic test and are equivalent to a relative risk. This article studies the comparison...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: José Antonio Roldán-Nofuentes, Saad Bouh Sidaty-Regad
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Instituto Nacional de Estatística | Statistics Portugal 2021-12-01
Series:Revstat Statistical Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revstat.ine.pt/index.php/REVSTAT/article/view/355
Description
Summary:Positive and negative likelihood ratios are parameters which are used to assess and compare the effectiveness of binary diagnostic tests. Both parameters only depend on the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic test and are equivalent to a relative risk. This article studies the comparison of the likelihood ratios of two binary diagnostic tests subject to a paired design through confidence intervals. Six approximate confidence intervals are presented for the ratio of the likelihood ratios, and simulation experiments are carried out to study the coverage probabilities and the average lengths of the intervals considered, and some general rules of application are proposed. A method is also proposed to determine the sample size necessary to estimate the ratio between the likelihood ratios with a determined precision. The results were applied to two real examples.
ISSN:1645-6726
2183-0371